Diandra Interviews Via Barcelonia: Timing Is Everything

There are certain quotes that are so powerfully appropriate, wise, and empowering, but, somehow, make you want to kick a rock everytime you hear them. Things like, “Stay Positive!”  “Don’t Worry! It Gets Better!” and “Timing Is Everything!” These quotes are so true, but you hear them and your heart literally makes a fist because you don’t want to wait, you can’t fight your worries, and staying positive feels too delusional. Yet, for Andrew Allen, of Via Barcelonia, positivity is what fuels him. He has realized that life has its own plans, and all he has is the time to see where it takes him. In our interview, we discuss how time took him to his new, music partner, Taylor, to form Via Barcelonia and made him a better songwriter for their newest record: Wonderland.

Diandra: How are you creating right now because your music is so joyous and people are depressed in this pandemic?

Andrew: (laughs) I completely agree. You don’t want to be too happy and you don’t want to be too sad. This pandemic has put people on emotional waves. One day, you are like, “It’s not that bad. I get to have extra time with my family! I need a good song so I can workout at the gym” and the next day you are like, “The world is ending. I need a sad song so I can just cry at home and drink bourbon.” We all feel really manic at the moment.

When the pandemic hit, we had already finished the album, and it was about writing new stuff, but I was just in my head because I really don’t know what to write about. I don’t want to write about these specific times because I really don’t want to remember them (he laughs), but I also don’t want to negate my responsibility, as an artist, to add to the narrative that exists around us. 

Via Barcelonia – Somebody (Official Video)

Diandra: Do you see positive changes for the future of the industry? Because it feels like life is never going to go back to what it was in any way?

Andrew: It is interesting that you say that because I do want my old life or, at least, some parts of it. I do wish I could go back. Releasing the album has been really interesting to see what people connect with. There are some really happy songs and there ones that just lie in sadness. Some of those have really connected more, and I feel that, as time went on, people started to spend less time online. They got their gardens growing and really left the web. So that put artists in an interesting spot because we had to ask ourselves, “How do we get ourselves heard?” How do we push our stuff out there?”

I think, in the future, it is going to be the songwriters that really get ahead and cut through the stuff. There is so much out there and we are used to image- obsessed celebrities, and I think, in the future, the stuff that is filled with more depth will start standing out more.

Diandra: You know, of all the responses I did not expect that one. It makes total sense.

Andrew: On both sides of that, you have these big artists that are really big because of social networking. They are really interconnected through social media, but also because of real life. They are in school and they are networking, “Hey, have you heard LANY? Or Lauv?” Then, it travels from school to school, but they are not having that right now. So they are really discovering what they like for themselves, and when you think of it that way, I think songwriters are going to thrive. Usually, its singers that can sing okay and look cute, and songwriters give their songs to them. Yet, because of the age of Spotify, and, especially now, they are not getting paid as much. So I think that is going to prompt a lot more writers keeping and releasing their music for themselves. I think we are going to get the plastic sheen of the top cover, and start getting more writers that are singing their stuff and delivering it from their heart: their guts.

Via Barcelonia – Lost and Found (Official Video)

Diandra: That is so hopeful, I can’t stand it! It feels like you are saying the shiny, pop factory is going to get a little gritty, and some surprising actors will rise to the top that are not so glam and more heart.

Andrew: Exactly! That is my hopeful prediction. Now, that we are connecting more to our family, ourselves, and the earth, we will want music that is more authentic and deeper. There are countries in the world where there are no industries or artists getting so paid, but there is music everywhere. I think we will push away some of this idolatry that happens with artists and celebrities. It can be less about what is your social media numbers and platform, and more about what you communicate about the world that should be heard: what you say to make the world better. I know that is an aggressively optimistic view.

Diandra: Do you ever feel like your music is tossed or not treasured enough because it is happy, and I say that as someone who has spoken to other “happy, groovy” artists who struggle because there is a pressure to get sad in sound and style.

Andrew: You know, I feel like our latest album approaches the ying and yang of life. I have lost things and will lose again. Loss is cyclical, in the same way that I have gained and will gain more things. There are things I am scared about that you don’t know, and things that I am happy about that you don’t know. There is still darkness in these themes, but if you look at the positive, which I have the tendency to do, you can get into the swing of things. It is not over. It is a survival guide on how you need both things in your life.

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched Pixar’s Inside/ Out. It is beautiful. Joy is this wonderful character because she tries to dominate every feeling and she tries to get rid of sadness, but, in time, she realizes that sadness helps the child they are in experience joy. I feel like Wonderland is the adult version of that. It is telling people that they need all their emotions to feel one of them.

Also, when you find a musician that you get deeper with, you start making songs that are deeper. It shows in the work that I really found a balance with Taylor. We have this positivity that saturates us and it keeps us going. I kind of compare it to riding a motorcycle and seeing a ditch, and, if you keep looking at it, then you drive your motorcycle into it. We just understand each other and keep focused on the road.

Via Barcelonia – Stand Taller (Official Video)

Diandra: I love that comparison because it means you drive towards where you see yourself in the road. When I listened to the album some of the songs feel so relevant to now. Do you think, in some ways, artists are like psychic?

Andrew: I’m starting to think maybe. I did a writing trip to Los Angeles, and my producer went to a different writing trip. I asked him how was your trip and what’s your favorite song that you wrote. He said, “Good! I wrote this song called “Perfectly Perfect!” and I was like, “Cool I wrote a song called Perfectly Imperfect!” I think that there is this crazy, creative space that all artists are able to pull from, and that is why we can make similar songs without, necessarily, copying each other. We are just tapping into the same space.

Diandra: I loved that you called the album Wonderland. If you were The Mayor of Wonderland, what would be 3 laws?

Andrew: I wish Taylor was here because they would be so bizarre. Wonderful! But bizarre! If I were the Mayor of Wonderland, I would like to try and resolve conflicts so people would have to whisper their words. It would be hard to stay angry when you are whispering it. Another rule would be eye contact, and another rule would be to do everything with all your love and attention.

Diandra: What good behavioral rules! I expected laws but that is just how to be a good person.

Andrew: Yeah, I guess so! Didn’t notice that!

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